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If a creature, such as the akata, delivers an affliction through an attack (a bite in this case) does the attack have to deal hit point damage for the affliction to be transferred?
The rules for stamina and hit points indicate that the former represents near misses and the like, whereas the latter represents actual physical harm to one's person.
If the bite does only stamina damage, then you haven't really been bitten, teeth have not penetrated your skin or damaged your hit points, so it stands to reason that the affliction has not been transferred.
Is that the intent? Neither the affliction rules nor the akata stat block indicate that hit point damage is necessary, so it is extremely unclear to me at the moment.
What was the intent, for the Akata specifically, and for afflictions and "rider effects" in general?
There is no rules support anywhere I know of for any mechanic in the game that triggers on dealing hit point damage, rather than stamina - there are rules that interact with the difference, such as the Mystic Cure spell or Poisons, but I've never seen one that needs to deal hit point damage to function.
In general, afflictions are vector specific; for example, Black Lotus Extract is a contact vector poison, so it can be delivered with a sword without dealing any kind of damage, but Blue Whinnis is injury vector, so not only do you need to hit, you need to overcome damage resistance. Per the current rules we have, you can damage any of temporary hit points (e.g. from a force field), stamina points, or actual hit points to inflict Blue Whinnis - the definition of an injury affliction is on page 417 and includes any damage to the target, without caring about what pool is damaged.
Void Death is injury vector, so Akatas specifically are addressed using the rules I just provided (which, again, are on page 417): the Akata must overcome Damage Resistance and deal at least 1 point of damage to inflict Void Death, but need not worry about which of Temporary Hit Points, Stamina Points, or Hit Points that minimum 1 point is applied to.
Though RAW seems to support that supposition, that stance is completely illogical. If an akata has failed to bite its way past your force field, it has failed to make any contact with you at all, and so could not possibly have infected you with the microscopic larval young within its mouth. Neither could a poisoned knife poison you if it only did 4 damage against a force field capable of withstanding 10.
I do agree with you that vector is an important consideration, and that the circumstances can easily change on a case by case basis.
In any case, even if you disagree, I hope that you at least believe it to be ambiguous enough that it warrants a FAQ clarification.
There's no actual ambiguity, just the RAW seemingly violating the fluff description, implying the RAI may have been violated (and hence making it worth bringing to Paizo's attention). What you're basically asking is whether or not the RAW definition of injury vector afflictions matches the RAI definition, not for a clarification on an ambiguous interpretation of said definition.
I would be very surprised if you got what you're asking for in terms of SP vs HP; it would either allow PCs to murder NPCs with toxins far, far faster than I think is intended, because toxins would work on NPCs immediately, and only PCs would have an overshield, or NPCs would become immune to toxins, depending on which pool their points "counted as" for the purposes of toxins, and PCs would generally never, ever buy the stuff. You might be able to get a FAQ entry saying that temporary hit points block toxins, as I really don't know the intended balance of temporary hit points.
Starfinder Design Lead
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Stamina Points are not "took no damage." They are "took no lasting damage." It's the ability to shake off a pinch (specifically called out on page 22), not the ability to duck away from a punch. You got punched. You were hurt. Just not seriously hurt. Not 1 HP worth of hurt.
Those scenes where Captain Kirk leaps back from an attack, leaving a thin red line on his skin that doesn't even bleed? Stamina Points.
When you reach for a thorn and get pricked, suck on your thumb for a moment, but forget about it within an hour? Stamina Points.
But you'll note in both those examples, a substance could have been introduced into your bloodstream, even though you didn't take enough damage to be injured.
Even temporary Hit Point keep you from taking game-mechanically significant damage, not provide perfect protection from anything penetrating your skin until the last tHP is gone. When i was tested for allergies as a child, I was pricked in a pattern of 100 or so needle punctures. Obviously done of them did even 1 point of damage, since they were all healed by morning.
Something can do less damage than 1 SP or HP represents, but still have penetrated your skin. So if something says it has to damage you, doing SP or even tHP counts, which is why there's no note to the contrary.
Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Stephens. I think that satisfactorily answers my initial question.
However, quindraco expanded upon my initial question to include temporary hit points from things like force fields. It still strikes me as nonsensical in the case of force fields and other physical barriers. If I have a force field capable of stopping 10 damage, and a poisoned weapon deals 4 to the force field and none to my stamina or hit points how on earth have I been hurt, much less poisoned, at all? All the damage was clearly to the force field.
Also, the opposite extreme can be quite counter-intuitive too. Per the rules, it is possible for a wounding weapon to lop off a limb without ever dealing hit point damage at all. Can it really be said that the character just took "no lasting damage" in this instance? It seems like Starfinder is trying to have its cake and eat it too.
Per your statement, it is also seems possible for a wounding weapon to not deal any damage at all (being blocked by enough temporary hit points from a powerful force field for example), and still lop off a limb. I haven't lost any hit points or stamina points after turning off my force field, and don't require any healing. What are players and GMs supposed to make of this?
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Starfinder Design Lead
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All games are trying to have their cake and eat it too. Because the alternative is to model reality perfectly, and that's impossible.
A force field reduces damage. There's no reason to believe it perfectly reduces all damage so you feel nothing. Like a ballistic vest, you may well feel a lot despite avoiding serious injury, and if a pinprick of a weapon got through to you, and left no more than a paper cut, you'd happily say it 'absorbed the damage," but still be subject to something getting into your bloodstream.
Shock and how people react to it are complex things,. Could you, theoretically, take a critical hit for double damage from a wounding weapon and loose a hand without suffering any SP or HP loss? Absolutely,. And when you shrug that off with a "didn't even hurt" in action-hero style despite being down a limb your friends will be amazed at how tough you are.
And the game will proceed as intended.
Duly noted. Thank you again for your input, Mr. Stephens.
Another example from real life for reference: a bee sting. If it's just one bee and not a swarm, a single sting is not going to get through your stamina to impact your hit points. But all the same, you got stung. This is only a very tiny puncture, but its venom is still injected into you.